Biotechnology is a rapidly advancing field which requires the development of new and novel devices, and techniques to keep pace with the rest of the advances in a given field. These developments generally aid scientific investigators in the ability to isolate and investigate the constituents of various cellular forms. Analysis on this level is most often done through the investigation of an organism's, or cell type's, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). To better understand the genetic makeup of a given organism its DNA must be made available for the physical interactions with different chemicals, probes, and/or enzymes which are necessary with today's science. The process of making DNA available for study, as demonstrated in prior art can be problematic in those instances where the method is disruptive to the DNA. This is especially true where the cells/tissue are difficult to lyse without destroying the DNA molecules.
The methods used to liberate intracellular DNA are many and include, chemical systems designed to destroy the cell membrane, and cell wall if present, sonic wave systems, mechanical systems which essentially rip the cell open allowing the internal contents to be accessible, and physical pressure systems wherein the cells are pressured open. The balance then between efficiently lysing a cell and avoiding DNA degradation is a difficult one. Moreover, the processes, as they exist today, are often too expensive, and take to much effort to be completed successfully on a large scale. The alkaline solution treatment for extraction represented a significant improvement in DNA extraction technology, making such extraction easier, however it needed to be automated to cope with the demands of the research laboratories and corporations for powerful methods of genotyping large samples.
Therefore, there is a need for a simple method for extracting DNA from tissue samples on a large scale. The method and device disclosed herein attempts to solve this problem and were originally developed to aid in the rapid genotyping of large numbers of organisms. The use of oligonucleotide primers, typically 24-mers, for the development of genetic markers, and genotyping generally, has significantly increased the speed and ease by which DNA fragments tightly linked to the genes of interest can be isolated and identified. One problem encountered, however, is the expense of performing such tests. The expenses include not only material and supplies, but also the less definable costs such a quality of technical personnel, laboratory space, etc. This is especially true for those individuals and corporations involved in the seed or animal stock quality control applications.